The Kingdom

"It took courage to cross that gorge. You had courage to start out and then to get over halfway across, but then you let the fear of failing get to you and trip you up. At no point were you to be absent of the fear of attempting to cross such a dangerous obstacle, but you let fear control you instead of you controlling it. Next time you'll do better, because you went farther than you thought you could when you started out. Now there's less for you to fear on your second attempt."

"I don't see it that way," I said before then adding, "I fell!"

"And I caught you. Next time you won't fall."

"I wish I had your confidence about that!" I said with feeling.

"You'll see."

"Why does there even need to be a second time of crossing this rope?" I asked hopefully.

"Well, just like with life, it's a certain fact that you'll need a liberal application of courage more than once and so is there the possibility of coming to a gorge like this that needs to be crossed."

I sighed loudly. There was no way around my mentor's devised strategies or plans for my advancement into learning to be like him. It was a very hard journey.

I deeply wanted to learn and excel at everything that he was teaching me, but why did it have to be this hard?

"Come along Benaiah. There's something I want to show you."

Kuri was on his feet and pulling me up to mine. He started out along the ledge above the cliff and I followed along, curious to know what it was he would show me.

We had lived for a year now in the lower slopes of the Holy Mountains. During that time we had never ventured farther into the mountains than we were now.

The trail curved out of view and rounding the corner I gasped at the sight of what was revealed. In direct contrast with the desert sands that lapped up against the base of the mountains all along the northern front, I now found myself gazing down into a garden paradise of vivid greenery.

Nestled in amongst the lofty peaks lay a large continuous valley that was more lushly green than I had ever before seen in nature. While I didn't know much about the topography of Ayenathurim as a whole I did know some, and to date I had never heard of this place.

I turned my shocked eyes to Kuri's and was surprised to see that he was gazing down into the idyllic valley with an unsmiling gaze that bordered on anger. What would move him to be angry in the face of such beauty as existed in the mountain valley below us?